Best Video Game Stinger of 2012

January 10, 2013 by Paul Curtin

Spanning from huge cliffhangers to just plain strange, 2012 featured more games with extra scenes after the credits than ever. There were so many games with stingers this year that we had to split our Best Stinger award into two categories, one for gaming and one for movies. Like in movies, the use of stingers is growing ever more popular amongst developers as a way to encourage gamers to stick around during the credits and reward them afterwards for doing so — and with our site’s primary focus being to help let people know whether they should stick around during said credits, who are we to complain no matter how short and/or stupid they are?

But unlike in movies, stingers in video games are actually offering some more meaningful extra content. Whether it’s an extra scene that lasts a couple minutes with some big twists or sometimes even an extra level of gameplay, video game stingers have been offering those who wait far more of a reward than those found in theaters. And with so many great stingers this year in gaming, the choice of which was the best was much harder for us than deciding over which movie’s was the best.

Almost all of this year’s biggest games had some form of stinger. There were a lot of games with typical shorter minute-long scenes involving big plot twists like Darksiders II, Inversion, Lollipop Chainsaw, Mass Effect 3, NeverDead, and Silent Hill: Downpour. While others had longer scenes and even bigger plot twists with introductions to major characters that had yet to be revealed in previous games like Halo 4, Resident Evil 6, The Darkness 2, and Twisted Metal. Some stingers were just flat-out strange such as the case with Black Ops 2‘s where all the main characters are shown breaking character and rocking out at an Avenged Sevenfold concert.

In the case of Assassin’s Creed III an entire level was available in the post-credits epilogue. But while ACIII‘s post-credits level was nice, it was Spec Ops: The Line‘s use of a stinger after the game’s jaw-dropping ending that was the most original. Spec Ops‘ post-credits epilogue was not only playable, but allowed for the possibility of three different endings which all involved a different fate for the game’s lead character. Yager Development’s idea to use a stinger that allowed those who waited until after the credits to actually have a direct effect on the story and come away with one of three different endings (all of which were good, looking at you Mass Effect 3) is the perfect example of how to properly use a stinger and leave fans happy for waiting around during the 5-15 minutes that credits usually run. Winner: Spec Ops: The Line.